Structural Transformation and the Agricultural Wage Gap

Structural Transformation and the Agricultural Wage Gap
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Volume/Issue: Volume 2017 Issue 289
Publication date: December 2017
ISBN: 9781484335444
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Topics covered in this book

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Labor , Economics- Macroeconomics , Industries - Manufacturing , Agribusiness , WP , appendix E , gap decline , Wage Gaps , Structural Transformation , Agriculture , Human Capital , Sorting , Productivity Gaps , Brazil , wage gap , gap level , wage difference , skilled worker , differential pay , wage gain , Agricultural sector , Wage gap , Wages , Manufacturing

Summary

A key feature of developing economies is that wages in agriculture are significantly below those of other sectors. Using Brazilian household surveys and administrative panel data, I use information on workers who switch sectors to decompose the drivers of this gap. I find that most of the gap is explained by differences in worker composition. The evidence speaks against the existence of large short-term gains from reallocating workers out of agriculture and favors recently proposed Roy models of inter-sector sorting. A calibrated sorting model of structural transformation can account for the wage gap level observed and its decline as the economy transitioned out of agriculture.